Pierre Mendes France

Pierre Mendes France (11 January 1907-18 October 1982) was Prime Minister of France from 18 June 1954 to 23 February 1955, succeeding Joseph Laniel and preceding Edgar Faure. He belonged to the liberal Radical Party of France, and his leftist government oversaw the granting of independence to Vietnam.

Biography
Pierre Mendes France was born in Paris, France on 11 January 1907 to a family of Jews that had fled from Portugal to France during the 16th century. In 1928, he became the youngest member of the Paris Bar Association, and he became a member of the liberal Radical Party of France. In 1936, Prime Minister Leon Blum appointed him Secretary of State for Finance, and he served as Finance Commissar for French Algeria as a member of Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces. In 1947, he was elected to the National Assembly after the end of World War II, and he replaced CNI prime minister Joseph Laniel after he resigned following the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Mendes France would oversee France's withdrawal from French Indochina, and he was subjected to anti-Semitic criticism from far-right politicians such as Jean-Marie Le Pen. After 1958, he opposed De Gaulle's conservative government, and he claimed "Algeria is France" in a famous imperialist speech given during the Algerian War. He would come to lead the Unified Socialist Party of France, and he supported the May 68 protests. Mendes France died in 1982 at the age of 75.